Flavor

Food Court: More Meats, Pinch's Crowdfunding and More

Meat Week’s Back
Remember the time I ate vegetarian/vegan meals for a week? Yeah, me either.
This Sunday marks the return of Meat Week to Saytown, and it seems like it’ll be a beefy one. The celebration of all things beef and smoked, which features stops at local barbecue joints for specials, kicked off this past Saturday with a stop at 2M Smokehouse & Catering.

The rest of the schedule is as follows:Wednesday, February 1: King’s Hwy. Brew & Q will celebrate their monthly First Wednesday with music by DJ Free Verse, live art sessions by Nik Soupe and friends and giant beef ribs by pitmaster Emilio Soliz. 6:30pm, 1012 N. Flores St.

Thursday, February 2: Beef tips, sweet potato casserole, awesome brisket — what more do you need? The Big Bib plays hosts on Day 5 of this meat-a-thon. 6:30pm, 104 Lanark Drive.

Friday, February 3: Pitmasters Andrew Samia and Shane Reed at Dignowity Meats are known for the Kansas City-style brisket burnt ends, but they’re cooking up something special for Meat Week’s fifth year in our fair city. Stop by for Alamo Beer Co. specials. 6pm, 1701 E. Houston St.

Sunday, February 5: If you’re still truckin’ along on Day 7, you’ll want to celebrate at Burnt Ends’ Super Bowl Tailgate Party with live music, barbecue (natch) by pitmaster JP Perez and the game on the big screen. 3pm, 1725 Blanco Road.

Carnitas Are Coming
Souhthown’s tasty corridors are expanding into South Roosevelt these days with the upcoming opening of Carnitas Lonja, a new eatery by Alex Paredes formerly with Lüke San Antonio.

A standout at this year’s San Antonio Cocktail Conference’s Opening Night party, Paredes is one half of Gallo/Toro pop-ups, a concept he launched during his time at Lüke. With Carnitas Lonja (which means market or more colloquially, love handles), Paredes will bring a menu of carnitas, chicharron, frijoles and quesadillas along with hand-made tortillas to the 700-square-foot space. 1107 Roosevelt Ave.

Pinch’s Founders Club
Restaurants are expensive — opening a restaurant in downtown San Antonio and serving seafood, doubly so. To help reach their goal of opening sometime this spring, the Pinch Boil House & Bia Bar guys are once again reaching out to their fans.

Sean Wen and Andrew Ho, who introduced Pinch in early 2016 with Vietnamese-style crawfish boil pop-ups across downtown, launched a Founders Club this afternoon with sweet bonuses for donors. Donations are broken down into three levels: a $50 contribution receives a $100 Pinch gift card, $99 receives a $200 Pinch gift card and $199 receives a $400 Pinch gift card.
Double the reward means double the crawfish and banh mi, and “as a Founder, you will also get your name enshrined and added to our time capsule — which will be permanently displayed in our restaurant — as well as receive early invitations to special events, tastings, discount programs and other rewards,” per the Pinch site.

Would-be founders also get a sneak peek at the menu, which includes banh mis, bowls, boils, and snacks. The campaign will end February 21. 124 N. Main Ave.
Folc Announces Bexar Pub
According to chef Luis Colon, he and business partner Daniel Eisenhauer are taking their talents to the east side to open Bexar Pub. The Folc Burger (named the No. 1 Burger in Texas by Texas Monthly last summer) along with a menu of signature burgers, fried chicken, and other pub snacks will make their way to the space that once housed Toro Taco Bar.

Toro Taco Bar closed last July with little to no fanfare.

Renovations are still being made to the space, including the addition of a gas line and a new paint job. Colon shared Bexar Pub will also include a list of seven or so signature cocktails, along with 12 beers on tap and three taps for bubbles, red and white wine. Bexar Pub will also offer delivery to surrounding bars and businesses (Big Hops, Burleson, La Roca were mentioned) once the kitchen is in full swing. 114 Brooklyn Ave.

Shake Shake in SA
Whataburger is getting more competition these days from another burger chain, this time hailing from the East Coast.

Danny Meyer-founded Shake Shack, known for its fast-casual burgers, hot dogs, crinkle-cut fries and shakes is opening a location in San Antonio later this year as confirmed by the San Antonio Express-News. Launched in 2004 in Madison Square Park, the brand currently operates 100 stores as of 2016 with locations in North America, Japan, the Middle East, Russia, Turkey, the U.K. and South Korea.

According to the Express-News, the store will be located at the southwest corner of 410 and San Pedro.